Real/Fake Smile Experiment

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Real or Fake Smile Experiment People smile countless times throughout the day. But each and every time we smile, we can’t always mean it. Of course when one is actually happy or laughing they will have a true grin on their face. But in reality, most of the time people don’t have the same emotion behind that smile; most of the time people smile for social reasons! When you meet someone new, usually they are greeted with a hello and a smile. But when you are introduced to that person, are you really happy to meet them? Not really… You’re just being polite and welcoming. It’s really surprising how most people can’t tell the difference most of the time. But it’s actually very easy to tell if a smile is real or fake. Ideally, a genuine smile happens spontaneously, you can barely hold on back. A fake smile is mostly for social purposes, to show that you’re a “nice” person. Both smiles may look identical depending on the person. But the two different smiles come from totally different parts of the brain. The motor cortex is in charge of motions that are voluntary; when someone wants to flash a smile at some are cute or pretend the joke they just heard is funny. Their smile comes from here. Emotionally driven smiles come from the cingulate cortex. The motor cortex is decent at mimicking the cingulate cortex’s actions. There are signs between the two smiles. A “Duchenne” smile or a real smile not only has movement of the mouth curving upward but also has wrinkles around the eyes forming, and outward pulling of the cheeks. Also during Duchenne smiles, the face is generally symmetrical, and a lot smoother in appearance. The real smile starts and ends faster. The average duration of a real smile is .5 seconds to 4 seconds. Non-Duchenne smiles stay on one’s face longer depending on what the social trigger was. There are quite a few differences in the two smiles. I have
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